Saturday, January 21, 2017

Starting Seeds Indoors

These are my Aunt and Uncle. They are enthusiastic vegetable gardeners and they like to start seeds indoors in the spring. It saves some money on plants, gives them a jump on the season and gives them a sense of satisfaction in the knowledge that "we grew it" - from a tiny seed to the dinner table!
I asked them recently about their experience with starting seeds indoors (successes and failures, etc. ) and here is what they wrote (see pictures below):

We like the little green house we got from Home Depot. About $40. We’ve seen them at Smith’s and Lowe’s and other garden centers. There are bigger ones and smaller ones. In the picture, you’ll see we’ve rigged up lights and fans on power strips and with a timer.

We started with seed plantings in March, following the instructions on the packages about germination times, maturity times, temperature sensitivities, etc. If started too early plants can get very leggy

The pictures show the progress through establishment, hardening off, and delivery to the garden.

We haven’t had good luck with peppers nor tomatoes. A friend of ours started Tomatoes early and tended them until after Mother’s day and they did ok…We’re going to let the stores do the work on tomatoes and peppers. Our Aunt Nelly’s Ground Cherry failed to sprout at home.